


The City of Fireflies

by waterlilyinclearwater



Category: Bohemian Rhapsody (Movie 2018), Queen (Band)
Genre: Dork Lovers Server Challenge (Queen Band), Drunkenness, F/M, Fae & Fairies, Gen, Mistakes, Panic Attacks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-01
Updated: 2019-09-01
Packaged: 2020-10-05 03:29:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20482133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waterlilyinclearwater/pseuds/waterlilyinclearwater
Summary: "‘My life is in your hands’He had meant it as a joke, of course. Not literally. Turns out you shouldn’t joke when it comes to the Fae.Yes, he placed his life in the hands of a faerie. He’d also pissed off said faerie. But still, there was a chance, however small, that he might make it out alive."In which Roger learns to watch his words, but will it be too late?





	The City of Fireflies

### The Beginning

‘My life is in your hands’

He had meant it as a joke, of course. Not literally. Turns out you shouldn’t joke when it comes to the Fae.  
He feels as though Brian would berate him for not knowing it, but he couldn’t know for sure. Brian wasn’t here. Brian was at home, living his normal life, completely oblivious to Roger’s current precarious situation. He kind of wished Brian was here to tell him he’d been stupid.  
He knows he shouldn’t think that way, that that was extremly selfishh. Still, Roger was selfish, although he wouldn't actually put his friend’s life on the line just so he wouldn’t die alone.  
Although he wasn’t entirely sure he would die, now was he?  
Yes, he placed his life in the hands of a faerie. He’d also pissed off said faerie. But still, there was a chance, however small, that he might make it out alive.  
He turned around in his small cage in attempt to make himself more comfortable, but he was unsuccessful.  
He thought back to how it all began.

* * *

“Hello everyone, this is Marcus; Marcus, meet the band.” They all introduced themselves. It was another day, another concert, in another town. This particular concert in this particular town was scheduled rather last-minute. Roger knew, because John had been complaining he’d had to cancel his date with… Veronica? Was that her name? Roger wasn’t that good with names; he’d already forgotten the name of the guy who led their way here. Although, he did still remember Marcus. This Marcus worked at the concert hall where they’d play tonight.  
Roger thought he might actually remember him. Not that his name was that special, but his face on the other hand; that was something else entirely. He was very handsome, with dark hair, green eyes, fine facial features, and something else that Roger couldn’t quite put his finger to. Roger wasn’t gay, but if he had been…  
He suddenly became aware of multiple people staring at him.  
“What?”  
“Do you want some coffee? Or would you rather have a private room with this fellow here? ” Marcus, to his credit, didn’t blush. Roger glared at Freddie and scoffed.  
“Yeah I’d like some coffee.” 

* * *

It had been a great show. The audience loved it, the energy of the crowd and of Freddie had combined to make a great evening. They were cooling down in the dressing room.  
“Does anyone feel like going out?” Roger asked. The overall response from the room appeared to be positive, so Roger figured that was a yes.  
“Hey Marcus, do you know a good place for clubbing around here?”

Long story short, Marcus did. Considering they lived in a fairly small town, the boys hadn’t been too sure there would be a good place, but they had been wrong. Marcus took them to a club called Eithel, and it was fantastical. The music was ethereal, and there were a lot of bright colours. There was a heavy sweet smell in the air that was almost intoxicating.  
The boys followed Marcus in as he led the way to the bar. The bartender nodded his head in acknowledgement; they seemed to know each other well. From what Roger guessed, they could be brothers. The bartender had the same delicate facial features and this almost otherworldly air about them.  
“What will it be then, young men?” The bartender spoke with a heavy, melodic accent Roger couldn’t place.  
Roger opened his mouth to order them all a beer, but before he could, Marcus cut in.  
“Give them all the special Eithel treatment” he said with a wink.  
“Very well, five Eithel specials, coming your way!” The bartender turned around and made himself busy grabbing multiple bottles of the shelf.  
“Wait, only five? Where did the rest go?” John looked around searching for the lost roadies.  
“Oh they didn’t join us, they’d rather go back to their own hotel immediately and get a good night’s sleep.” Marcus explained.  
“That’s weird, I could’ve sworn they were following us.”  
“What’s weird is Ratty choosing a good night of sleep over a good night of clubbing.” Freddie argued.

Before anyone could react, the bartender returned with five drinks, black as obsidian.  
“There you go, five Eithel specials, enjoy!”  
Roger took his drink and eyed it suspiciously. The drink was black as tar, and he couldn’t see through it as he held it up against the light. It smelt rather good, very sweet with a floral hint.  
“It’s alright, it won’t kill you,” Marcus said as he saw Roger’s doubtful look.  
“If you say so.” John didn’t seem to trust the thick black substance entirely either.  
They clinked their glasses together.  
“Alright then, my life is in your hands. If I die, I’ll kill you. And I'll come back as a ghost to hunt the three of you, you aren’t gonna get rid of me that easily” he added as he tore his eyes away from Marcus to look at his band mates. If he hadn't, maybe he would have caught the strange glint that came in the former’s eyes as he heard the words.

“Well, here goes nothing. Cheers!”  
Even if it didn’t look that good, the taste more than made up for it. It didn’t taste as sweet as it smelled, but a lot fruitier, with that same flowery undertone. As Roger drained his glass, he noticed Marcus was looking at him with an incredulous and slightly worried expression.  
“You’re supposed to sip it. Not drink it completely at once.”  
“Not? Oh we’ll be fine, we can handle something. We’re rockstars, dear.” This came from Freddie as he put his empty glass next to Roger’s on the bar, and proceeded to order refills. The barman was just as surprised as Marcus was, but began making them nonetheless.  
Marcus gave him the same stare, before shrugging and bringing his own, still full, glass to his lips.  
  
“All right, who wants to dance?” John asked hopefully.  
The music wasn’t exactly dancing music, although that didn’t seem to deter the other guests. Even though he normally wouldn’t, as every self-respecting musicians knows not to dance, something convinced him to join his friend on the floor this time. As he stood up from his barstool, he figured out that ‘something’ was probably the alcohol. Although the drink didn’t taste strong, it certainly packed a punch. He hardly had noticed it when he had been sitting, but it seemed it hit him all at once as he moved. He grabbed John’s arm for support, and John led him to dance floor with a smile that was a mix between amused friend and overenthusiastic puppy.  
Between the bodies of the other dancers and with John in the lead, it hardly seemed to matter the music wasn’t your standard club music. Roger found he could move his body freely, and it felt good.

At some point, which felt like a long time and yet no time at all, Freddie came to the dance floor to bring Roger his second drink. John made sure Freddie didn’t leave the floor as he grabbed his arm and twirled him around.  
Brian was still at the bar, having a, from the looks of it, rather intense conversation with some stranger. Roger thought Brian looked a bit angry, but he didn’t dwell on it too long as his attention got caught by a rather pretty girl in the talking area between the bar and the floor.  
As he made his way over, ignoring John’s pout and normally very convincing puppy eyes, he was slightly bummed she was already talking to a guy. He didn’t let that stop him though. He was Roger fucking Taylor, he could win a girl from any guy.  
Except, maybe not this one. It turned out to be Marcus, who looked even more handsome now than in the harsh fluorescent lights of the concert hall that morning.  
“Ah, Roger. Come here, we were just talking about the gig!”  
Roger found his mouth wouldn’t quite work the way it should. It was not only the shock of seeing precisely Marcus talking to the girl he had his eye on, but he found he was also quite enthralled by this girl. She had red hair, full lips, and an even fuller bra.  
“Roger, this is my girlfriend, Regina. Regina, meet Roger, the drummer.”  
“A pleasure to make your acquaintance, sir.” She took his hand in a rather unusual way. He thought she might kiss his hand, like the gentlemen of old used to do. “And yours, too,” he said, still a little dazed. It took a few moments before he registered the fact that Marcus had referred to her as _his girlfriend_. That made his chances even smaller. Still, they were not non-existent. Especially not if he was interpreting that look she sent his way correctly.  
“I was just going to get us something to drink. Would you like something as well?”  
“No, thank you, I still have some,” he looked down at the empty glass in his hand. “Uh, apparently I don’t. I’d like some more of the black stuff, please.”  
Was Marcus laughing at him? He wasn’t sure. It seemed everything was dancing, but in a pleasant way.  
“All right, I’ll be right back.”

Marcus left for the bar. This was his chance, he was alone with the girl at last. Reggie, no, Ronnie, no. Ah fuck it, he’d already forgotten her name.  
“Does this village meet your expectations, sir?”  
“Please, call me Roger. And yeah, it’s nice. Beautiful houses, bars, but I especially like the people here.” He sent her one of his special looks.  
“I am pleased to hear that. Are you enjoying yourself this evening?”  
She had a rather peculiar way of talking. Like she was over a century old. Not that it really mattered, the plans Roger had for her didn’t involve a lot of talking.  
He took a little step closer to her, hoping he wouldn’t intimidate her. At that moment, Marcus returned with the drinks. Damn, that bartender was fast.  
“Here you go, another one of that ‘black stuff’”.  
“Thanks mate.”  
Marcus and his girlfriend were laughing again. Was his saying ‘black stuff’ really that funny or had he missed the joke? He had no idea.  
He stood by as Marcus was having a conversation with his girlfriend. When they were talking, he seemed to take on the same odd way of speech. They complicated sentences a lot, and that was not something his head could process in this state.

It seemed luck was in his favour though, this evening. A couple of minutes later a guy came for Marcus, who mumbled a quick excuse and left.  
Roger was now once again alone with the girl, and it did not look like Marcus would be returning any time soon.  
“I could do with some fresh air, will you join me?”  
“Very well. There is a place that may suit your tastes. Would you care to join me in the garden of Elear?” Of course Roger couldn’t pass up this opportunity, so he followed the girl out the back door. She indeed led him into a garden of sorts. There was a peculiar feel to the atmosphere Roger couldn’t quite describe. Something felt off. The colours were too bright, the air tasted too sweet, like it was all too good to be true. He wrote it off as a play of light, seeing as the sun had already started to come up.

“Oh, will you look at that. I had no idea it was dawn already. It’s so pretty,” he said. It was pretty. The sky was painted with colours of red, orange, lilac, and even the occasional bit of green. He had never seen a sunrise quite like it. He should check if there had been absinth or anything stronger in his drinks, because it did feel a bit like he was hallucinating.  
Still, the side of him that wanted to look at pretty girls rather than pretty skies won over.  
“I could name some other things here that are pretty.” He half-whispered in an attempt to be seductive. Either she did not take up on it at all, or she was a really good actress.  
“Could I take a guess? I thought you would fancy the water lilies.” Roger had not, in fact, noticed there were huge water lilies in the pond. Or even that there was a pond, he’d been too preoccupied. If he had cared to look at this moment, it might have changed his future situation drastically. But Roger had no interest in wet plants.  
“I was in fact talking about you.”  
She was either a really good actress or she genuinely had hardly any facial expressions.  
“Indeed? Well, thank you, that is very nice.”  
She took her eyes off of him and focussed on some point in the distance, while tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear. That was a sign a girl was into you, right? The hair tuck? Roger thought it good enough, and leaned in to kiss her.  
“Man Ceril? I am unavailable and you know as much!”  
“I do know, but he’ll never know what happened.” He took her by the shoulder and tried to kiss her again, more forcefully this time.  
“Aiya!”  
“What is happening here?”  
Turns out, her boyfriend would know what happened, considering he had - almost magically - appeared behind them at that exact moment.  
“Oh nothing, we were just,” he started to excuse himself, as the girl started talking in a language he didn’t know. Marcus answered in the same language, and it reminded Roger of the accent the barman sported.

Roger swung his head back and forth between the girl and Marcus, as if he was watching a tennis match. He had no clue what they were saying, but they did not seem pleased. He thought this a good moment to make himself scarce, but alas, he was unsuccessful. As he turned to go back the way they’d came, Marcus’ voice rang out: “Where do you think you’re going?”  
“Oh, just gonna take a piss, you know,” the girl seemed to be offended at his choice of words.  
“You’re not going anywhere.”  
“I think I can decide that for myself.” Who the hell did that Marcus think he was? He might be extremely handsome, which would probably let him get away with a lot in his life; he would not get away with telling Roger Taylor what to do.  
“Except that I can do that for you” Roger thought Marcus had read his mind for a second, before he remembered what he’d said. He scoffed, and moved to go past him anyway.  
“Your life is in my hands, remember?”  
“What?” Roger stopped trying to escape from a pissed-off boyfriend for a moment in order to stare incredulously at said boyfriend. He genuinely had no idea what Marcus was on about.  
“You said it to me earlier this evening. You might not come to like what it will mean. Now, I would recommend that you come with me voluntarily, while I’m still offering you a chance.” Roger just scoffed “Nutter,” and continued on his way back to the door. He did not get very far.

**Author's Note:**

> What do I say? I have no idea where this came from, or where this is going, but I guess we'll see.  
Also, because I'm not Tolkien and I didn't feel like making up a language of my own, I used sindarin as a base for the language the Fae speak.  
'Man Ceril?' means 'What are you doing?' and 'Aiya' means 'help'.


End file.
